PABLO, MONTANA 59855 ISSN: 0528-8592
NEWSPAPER OF THE SAUSH, PEND d'OREILLE AND KOOTENAI TRIBES OF THE FLATHEAD INDIAN RESERVATION, WESTERN MONTANA
VOLUME 11 NUMBER 12
NEW MOON OF AUTUMN
NOVEMBER 1, 1982
Women suggest income ideas
PABLO — Two Tribal member women recently presented the Tribes with two apparently sound money-making ideas.
M. Eloise Anderson, Ronan, proposed a calf-feeder operation that could yield over $300,000 a year to the Tribes, E.W. Morigeau claims.
Anita Dupuis, Poison, representing Salish Kootenai College, related a plan for selling Christmas trees to specially selected markets in the South. Not strictly to produce income for the Tribes, the plan could conceivably finance SKC's operations in the future.
Responding to an advertisement for a Tribal ranch manager Eloise (Bell) Anderson proposed a calf-feeder business (where
Portland, here we come
The Secretary of the Interior Department "has signed off on our move to the Portland Area [BIA] office", Chairman Tom Pablo learned October 22.
Dr. Al Spang, Flathead Agency superintendent, in the formal written announcement to Pablo explained that "it will be a few months before we are fully and actually" under Portland's jurisdiction. There are "interim steps... to be taken", including the publication of a notice in the Federal Register.
In the meantime, "we will continue to relate to Billings", Spang noted
(Billings, by the way, hasn't "moved to Aberdeen" as bally-hooed by the Interior Department many months ago. The powers-that-be are still studying its cost-worthiness, apparently.)
calves are bought in the fall, fattened during the winter, then sold in the spring) because cow-calf operations are marginal enterprises at best, she said in her written presentation.
Like the Barber plan last month, though, the Anderson plan failed to gain Tribal Council support. The Tribal governing body voted to accept the concept instead, deciding to solicit other feeder plans. (See page 5.)
Lack of support for the Anderson plan was based on three points: first, the FY-83 Tribal budget had no provision for agricultural development; second, some felt other Tribal members should be given the chance to make a similar proposal; and third, at least one councilman felt all ten councilmen should be required to decide on the investment of land and money. Only seven were in attendance that day.
Didn't everyone get that chance already - the chance to answer the ranch manager advertisement, you ask? Yes, but since it was presumed the Tribes wanted a cow-calf enterprise, no one, except Anderson, addressed the idea of wintering calves for resale. Council consensus following the Anderson presentation was that interested Tribal members should be allowed to follow up on the new idea
Tribal land use now includes leasing parcels to local farmers and ranchers. Leasing returns about $5,500 a year to the Tribes, councilman E.W. Morigeau noted, adding that at this rate, it would take well over 200 years to catch up with the amount of money spent to date on land acquisition. A successful feeder ranch could recoup that investment a good deal faster, he said
(Continued on page 3)